Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Heavy crudes rush the market (in English and Spanish)

Journal Article · · Energy Detente; (United States)
OSTI ID:5573497

There is indeed a shortage of heavy crude in California, one of the richest heavy crude regions in the world - for certain users. Certain independent refiners have had temporary or chronic difficulty in getting long-term supply contracts. But price is the principal problem since, throughout the year, producers have required premiums over posted buying prices - up to US $4 per barrel during the summer, and now often US $3 per barrel, for 13/sup 0/ API California crude. When an independent refiner isn't deterred by the premiums, he is often prevented from purchase by volume requirements. As California moves from a pioneer heavy crude producer to the most developed heavy crude market in the world, its production and refining sectors are rushed to invest in greater efficiency in order to compete. The same technological improvements in refining that have increased demand for heavy crude oil are driving cost-cuts upstream and downstream. Industry sources watch for OPEC output ceilings to be lifted to allow more Venezuelan exports of heavy crude and resid, thereby softening demand for California's production; Canadians look forward to sending more heavy crude to California next year. After the mid-1980s, the paradox of heavy-crude supply tightness in California may well have disappeared. This issue of Energy Detente includes the fuel price/tax series and the industrial fuel prices for October 1983 for countries of the Eastern Hemisphere.

OSTI ID:
5573497
Journal Information:
Energy Detente; (United States), Journal Name: Energy Detente; (United States) Vol. 4:19; ISSN EDETD
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English and Spanish